This bronze was struck under the authority of the proconsul Caesennius Paetus — his name rendered in Greek as ΚΑΙϹΕΝΝ ΠΑΙΤΟΥ across the coin's legend — during Domitian's reign in the province of Asia. The ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ (Homonoia) type reflects a formal alliance coinage between Smyrna and Ephesus, two cities in perpetual rivalry over titles like "first and greatest" within the province. These concord issues were political performances as much as monetary ones, produced when the two cities needed Roman approval to settle a prestige dispute.
Ephesus held the conventus seat and generally came out ahead in such negotiations.
This bronze was struck under the authority of the proconsul Caesennius Paetus — his name rendered in Greek as ΚΑΙϹΕΝΝ ΠΑΙΤΟΥ across the coin's legend — during Domitian's reign in the province of Asia. The ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ (Homonoia) type reflects a formal alliance coinage between Smyrna and Ephesus, two cities in perpetual rivalry over titles like "first and greatest" within the province. These concord issues were political performances as much as monetary ones, produced when the two cities needed Roman approval to settle a prestige dispute.
Ephesus held the conventus seat and generally came out ahead in such negotiations.